It's been 200 years since the first stones were laid in what would eventually become tracks across America. Trains that enabled both goods and people to traverse across thousands of miles helped build the United States into a coast-to-coast nation. But with the advent of cars and airplanes in the 1900s, trains have become a far-less efficient and desirable means of transportation for people in the U.S. 

Today, with the promise of high-speed train service cutting down travel times and new technology enabling much more enviro-friendly service, trains are once again front-and-center. 

Florida recently invested in a high-speed rail service linking several cities across the southern part of the state, and now this project will link Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area 218 miles away. What would normally take four hours without traffic (and good luck not hitting traffic in either city) will be cut in half to just two hours. And its environmental impact could be the greatest benefit of all with fewer cars and planes putting harmful carbon emissions into the air.